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Alleged Colorado Shooter Is Charged – WSJ.com #explain #onlyonewinner
English: Brass weight scales with cupped trays. Created with POV-ray. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Alleged Colorado Shooter Is Charged – WSJ.com.
If I’m honest, there are lots of thing I don’t really understand about this and the Anders Breivik case too.
From what I hear and read, it seems pretty clear-cut that Mr Holmes committed the crime. Why then is it going to take such a long time to sentence him and on what basis are his lawyers defending him?
I’m not advocating sentence without trial and I’m not baying for his blood either but what exactly is the debate?
However, I suppose it’s all good news if you’re in the legal profession?
Common sense, just try to graduate as a lawyer.
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Moody’s put negative outlook on Germany #thewallsarecrumbling #eurocrisis #ecb
English: (Green) Germany. (Light-green) The European Union (EU). (Grey) Europe. (Light-grey) The surrounding region. See also: Category:SVG locator maps of countries of Europe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Moody’s put negative outlook on Germany: the full text – Telegraph.
It looks like Moody’s have finally got something right as the implications of the euro bailouts start to be felt at the Euro powerhouse that is Germany. Maybe it’s time for Germany to leave the Euro?
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- Moody’s puts Germany on notice – CNNMoney (money.cnn.com)
Germanys Schaeuble warns Greece #scary #orwhat #itsmyball #greece #germany #eurocrisis #ecb
Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Germanys Schaeuble warns Greece | Herald Sun.
The ever sensitive German finance minister is out waving his stick around again as was predicted by Simplesimon8 a few months ago.
The issue is that Greece may not be complying with the terms of it’s Euro bailout.
If Greece must cut it’s budget, then in turn it’s people will have to take a lower salary and in turn their cost of living must reduce, with lower rents, energy costs, food etc etc..
Can’t see that happening anytime soon, so where now? Just a long long summer.
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- Greece May Be Forced Out By Germany (seekingalpha.com)
July 23 (Bloomberg) — Greece retakes its position at the heart of the European debt crisis this week as its creditors assess how far off course the country is from bailout targets, raising again the specter of its exit from the euro.
Greece’s troika of international creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — will arrive in Athens tomorrow amid doubts the country will meet its commitments and reluctance among euro-area states to put up more funds should it fail.
“If Greece doesn’t fulfill those conditions, then there can be no more payments,” German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler told broadcaster ARD yesterday, adding that he is “very skeptical” Greece can be rescued and that the prospect of its exit from the monetary union “has long ago lost its terror.”
After euro finance ministers failed to staunch a fresh low for the single currency last week with the approval of a 100 billion-euro ($122 billion) aid package for Spain, the troika will be tasked with determining the fiscal position of the nation where the crisis began almost three years ago. Greece is clamoring for more help as efforts to cut its debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 fall short.
The euro last week fell to a 12-year low against the yen and the lowest point against the U.S. dollar in more than two years. Ten-year Spanish bond yields climbed back above 7 percent as concern mounted that policy makers are failing in their efforts to resolve the euro quandary.
IMF
The slump was compounded as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy forecast a second year of recession and Spain’s regions lined up to seek bailout funds from the central government. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, his country also burdened under surging borrowing costs, blamed unrest in Spain.
In Greece, officials have been struggling to hold to obligations tied to 240 billion euros of rescue funding over the past two years.
The IMF, which indicated in March it won’t commit more money to Greece, will make a decision on its next disbursement in late August at the earliest based on the troika’s findings, two fund officials familiar with the situation in recent days.
The Washington-based IMF has signaled to European officials that it will stop paying further rescue aid to Greece, bringing the country closer to insolvency in September, Der Spiegel yesterday cited unidentified European Union officials as saying. It’s “already clear” to the troika that Greece won’t reach the 120 percent target, Spiegel said.
Additional Aid?
Missing the targets means Greece would need between 10 billion euros and 50 billion euros in additional aid, a potential outcome that the IMF and several unidentified euro- area states are not prepared to accept, Spiegel said.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s three-way coalition, formed last month after a June 17 election ended a six-week political deadlock in the country, has scrambled to assemble budget cuts to convince troika officials.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has identified about 8 billion euros of spending cuts and savings for the next two years out of 11.5 billion in additional cuts required. Stournaras is fending off pressure to impose more reductions this year as the economy shrinks faster than originally forecast. He is scheduled to present his proposals to the troika on July 26.
The Greek government is also behind on state asset sales, having so far brought in 1.8 billion euros, a fraction of the 50 billion euros it aims to raise by 2020, half from sales in company stakes and half from real estate. The state is unlikely to generate more than 300 million euros this year, short of the about 3 billion euros targeted for 2012, according to the outgoing chief of the state’s asset-sales fund, Costas Mitropoulos.
Bond Payment
Mitropoulos announced his resignation from the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund last week, citing a lack of support from Samaras’s government.
Greece is due to make a 3.1 billion-euro bond payment, mostly to the ECB, in August, a challenge that euro-area officials have said won’t be an issue, while so far declining to specify how they’ll ensure the bond redemption gets paid.
German officials over the weekend torpedoed the possibility of renegotiating the terms of Greece’s agreement.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Hamburger Abendblatt that his Free Democratic Party, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government, won’t agree to any attempts by Greece to overhaul its bailout terms.
“That won’t work — that’s a Rubicon we can’t cross,” Westerwelle told the newspaper. “It’s in Greece’s own hands to ensure it stays” in the euro, he said. Last month, Westerwelle said negotiators might consider giving Greece more time.
No Extension
That option also was rejected by Volker Kauder, the parliamentary caucus leader for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. He told party colleagues that “there will be no adjustment, also no more time,” according to WirtschaftsWoche.
Once taboo, the possibility that Greece could exit 17- member monetary union has been voiced by European officials this year who consider the fallout from such a scenario would be the lesser evil against a seemingly perpetual crisis.
Roesler, who is Germany’s economy minister as well as the Free Democratic chairman, told ARD that a curtailment of aid to Greece would lead to a sovereign default, which would in turn lead to “Greeks coming to the conclusion that it is probably wiser to leave the euro area.”
Spiegel reported that German officials were holding off on such a decision until the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, comes into operation in September. The 500 billion-euro ESM is on hold pending a decision by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, set for Sept. 12.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
700,000 Olympics tickets unsold – #london2012 #olympics
Cropped transparent version of Image:Olympic flag.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
700,000 Olympics tickets unsold – Home News – UK – The Independent.
It appears that a lot of tickets remain unsold to the “greatest show on earth”
Whilst this appears to be a disaster, many of these unsold tickets are to football events, not really an Olympic sport, just a cash cow (that was ‘plan A’ anyway)
So it seems that sections of stadia will be cut off and no doubt the TV cameras have been instructed to avoid concentrating on empty seating areas.
In any case, if Olympic venues are empty, the authorities can always rely on school children filling them up for free. Assuming that is, that their parents haven’t already fled London on the express instruction of the travel authorities.
Common sense, don’t hold the Olympics in your city without it.
Related articles
- London 2012 Olympics: 200,000 spare tickets still to be sold (telegraph.co.uk)
- Wales News: 300,000 Millennium Stadium Olympic football tickets still unsold (walesonline.co.uk)
Where next for banking #banks #RBS #Lloyds #Barclays
Understanding Financial Leverage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So now what?
Barclays and RBS to name but a few have been found out for rate fixing. The likes of JP Morgan have been lying to shareholders. MF Global and PFGBest have been stealing funds from their customers. It’s going to be a hard act to clean up the City.
Next move I expect, will be the reversal of the trend in the 1980’s. Financial organisations will be split into their component parts. A retail bank will be just that. A bank that borrows money from savers and lends out the same money to others at a higher rate. This is called “Margin.” These banks will be dull, boring and their share prices will be stable. Above all else however they will be SAFE. The bank will lend money against secured assets and it’s management will be prudent and earn a modest salary.
Then there will be the ‘racy’ investment bank. It will play with other people’s money and rack up huge positions in derivatives. If the position goes right, the trader will get a bonus and the shareholders will see their asset appreciate.
In the event of armageddon the punters will lose out but critically, the average man in the street won’t suffer. The prudent tax payer will no longer be punished and thousands of honest employees won’t be dragged into the mire.
Common sense, you know it’s where we need to get back to.
Related articles
- Leicester city council withdraws millions from Barclays bank over Libor scandal (independent.co.uk)
- Another one with his hands in the till #PFGBest #Wasendorf (simplesimon8.wordpress.com)
- Scandal at the bank #Barclays (simplesimon8.wordpress.com)
A Fair Tax On Flying, please support this petition #virginatlantic #tax #unfair #desperate
Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 747-400 (G-VBIG, “Tinker Belle”) landing at London Heathrow Airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Air Passenger Duty – A message from Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive – Virgin Atlantic
Common sense, well done Virgin Atlantic!
Related articles
- Virgin Atlantic celebrates new Cancun route with tax-free tickets (dailymail.co.uk)
- Video: What is the Fair Tax? (turbotax.intuit.com)
Olympic security, is this the same Army that is suffering from government cutbacks? #army #madness
English: Commemorative stamp of Greece, The First Olympic Games (1896), 2 lepta. Русский: Марка Греции. Первые Олимпийские игры, 1896, 2 лепты (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Olympic security: army reinforcements called in to fill G4S shortfall | Sport | The Guardian.
What a shambles!
Common sense, when did it all go horribly wrong?
Related articles
- Service personnel may have to cancel holidays to cover Olympic security shortfalls (itv.com)
- MoD fury as soldiers forced to carry out menial security tasks for Olympic Games (telegraph.co.uk)
- 2012 Olympics: G4S Lets the Side Down on Security (mikesfilmtalk.com)
- The U.S. Olympic Uniforms Are Socialist Propaganda, According To Pro-American Internet Commenters [National Crises] (deadspin.com)
Another one with his hands in the till #PFGBest #Wasendorf
Regulators Hanged (Photo credit: Visit Hillsborough)
Iowa broker PFGBest collapses after hiding millions.
And so it goes on, with regulators seemingly powerless to prevent it.
And yet if I want to draw a paltry £50 from my own personal account at a British High Street bank, I have to go through endless security checks. So who is getting it wrong? Looks like the blame should fall fairly and squarely on regulators and banks (again). The problem is that regulators don’t understand what they are regulating until it’s too late and as long as you are big enough, Banks don’t care.
So where are we heading? Into a world where job growth will be strongest in the Regulatory area. Can’t be long before there are more regulators than bankers.
Common sense, don’t regulate without it.
Related articles
- PFGBest: Regulator Fail (managed-futures-blog.attaincapital.com)
- PFGBest Update: What We’re Hearing (managed-futures-blog.attaincapital.com)
- MF Global 2.0: $220 Million in Segregated Client Funds Missing at Broker PFGBest (silverdoctors.com)
Could this be the end for disruptive HFT systems? #manipulation #markets #exchanges
English: , New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
UPDATE: EBS Sets New FX Rules to Remove “Disruptive Behavior” – WSJ.com.
This move has been long overdue in my opinion. It looks as though the new rules will demand that users actually complete a proportion of their trades rather than just trying to create false markets as they have done for the past few years.
The next best move would be to see this type of rule implemented in Stock Exchanges, which in fact could help to stabilise markets somewhat.
Common sense, the end of HFT.
Related articles
- Joe Saluzzi: HFT Parasites Are Killing The Market Host (zerohedge.com)
- Is High Frequency Trading Good? Or Bad? (pointsandfigures.com)
Spain bows to ‘bad bank’ idea – CNN.com
English: Flag of La Rioja (Spain), with coat of arms. Español: Bandera de La Rioja (España) con escudo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Spain bows to ‘bad bank’ idea – CNN.com.
Well, I suppose it’s better late than never. This idea was first posted on my blog site back in May this year.
This move was inevitable and will assist in unhelpful short termism being removed from the banking sector in Spain. In itself it won’t reduce the debt but it will pass the liability on a few generations.
Common sense, don’t pass our debt without it.
Related articles
- Spain bows to ‘bad bank’ idea (edition.cnn.com)
- Where is the bad bank? #euro #eurocrisis #spain (simplesimon8.wordpress.com)
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